This year’s Super Bowl ads feature more aww, less eww

Adorable is the name of the game this year as Super Bowl advertisers try to grab your attention. That means lots of cute story lines, including one about a family that’s expecting a new baby and one about a horse that forms a long-lasting bond with a puppy.

The saccharine spots are partly a result of more family-friendly brands like Cheerios and Heinz advertising this year. At the same time, fewer start-ups that tend to have more provocative commercials are in the advertising game this year.

The trend also is a sign of the times. After widespread criticism of more racy or gross-out ads in recent years, companies are being careful not to offend the more than 108 million viewers who are expected to tune in Sunday to watch the National Football League’s annual championship game.

That’s increasingly important given their large investment. A 30-second Super Bowl spot goes for an estimated $4 million.

“People want nostalgia and fun and escape,” said Barbara Lippert, a columnist at MediaPost, a trade publication for the media industry.

Here are five “cute” commercials to watch for:

Anheuser Busch’s “Puppy Love” ad shows its iconic Clydesdales bonding with a Labrador puppy. The two try desperately to reconnect with each other after their first meeting.

Cheerios is showcasing the same biracial little girl and her parents who were in another ad that debuted last year. The company faced racist comments online when last year’s ad was rolled out, but it says the overwhelming response was positive.

So, Cheerios is bringing the family back in its first Super Bowl ad. In the spot, the father tells his daughter that they’re going to have an addition to the family, a baby boy. Then, the little girl strongly suggests they also get a puppy.

“We just fell in love with this family, and the big game provided another opportunity to tell a story about family love,” said Camille Gibson, vice president of marketing for Cheerios.

CarMax’s “Slow Clap” Super Bowl ad shows denizens of a small town congratulating a car buyer with a slow clap. The company also re-enacted the ad for an online video using only puppies that’s called “Slow Bark.”

Toyota enlists a carful of Muppets singing a “We Ain’t Got No Room for Boring” to promote its Highlander SUV.

One of Coca-Cola’s two Super Bowl ads features a boy who makes a surprise play in a little-league football game and runs to make a touchdown. He then keeps running until he gets to Lambeau Field, where the Green Bay Packers play. A groundskeeper offers him a Coke.

“We go with the story that feels the best for Coke at the right time,” said Katie Bayne, Coke’s president of North America Brands.

A small business that makes toys for girls will have its 30 seconds in the spotlight during the Super Bowl.

GoldieBlox will appear in a commercial in the third quarter of Sunday’s game, the grand prize in a small-business competition held by software maker Intuit.

The company’s toy sets include a book, blocks, wheels, cranks and other parts that children can use to build structures with moving parts.

Owner Debbie Sterling, who trained as an engineer at Stanford University, got the idea for the company after realizing that construction toys are marketed to boys, not girls.

The company won the commercial in voting by Intuit employees and the public and beat three other small companies in the competition’s final round.

Intuit will pay for the commercial that, by some estimates, will cost $4 million.

Intuit wouldn’t say what it spent on the ad.

One requirement of the competition was the winner be able to meet the increased demand for its products that can follow a widely seen commercial.

GoldieBlox, which already sells to Toys “R” Us and 1,000 specialty stores in the United States and Canada, is prepared for an order surge, Sterling said.

The Oakland-based company has hired a company to help with shipping and has signed up with a second factory in China, where its toys are made.

“We’ve been doing our due diligence over the past couple of weeks to make sure we’re ready,” she said.

Posting a comment to our website allows you to join in on the conversation. Share your story and unique perspective with members of the azcentral.com community.

Comments posted via facebook:

► Join the Discussion

Join the conversation! To comment on azcentral.com, you must be logged into an active personal account on Facebook. You are responsible for your comments and abuse of this privilege will not be tolerated. We reserve the right, without warning or notification, to remove comments and block users judged to violate our Terms of Service and Rules of Engagement. Facebook comments FAQ

Join thousands of azcentral.com fans on Facebook and get the day's most popular and talked-about Valley news, sports, entertainment and more - right in your newsfeed. You'll see what others are saying about the hot topics of the day.